In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

Get used to it. Stop drinking the Kool Aid on this site. No significant prior administration swamp dwellers will ever be brought to justice. And the Clinton’s will keep their multi millions. (By the way, where is the Clinton Foundation re: Harvey, Irma, etc.)?

There may be a “Big Ugly” as it relates to exposing the GOPe members of the swamp. That’s a good thing.

But there also may be a “Big Ugly Secret” and that is that PDJT will “play ball” with crooks to get a deal or two done.

We need to realize that reinstating the “Rule of Law” is more important than any political deal making.

Harley, you are correct 100%. That is exactly my thoughts. Add in Chelsea and Mark to the list of crooks also. They live in a multi-million dollar Manhattan apartment and he doesn’t even work since he had to shut down his investment firm. Hmm… wonder why?

There are many reason I voted for Trump but the #1 reason for me was he promised to DRAIN THE SWAMP. I’m not discounting all the good he has done thus far and I shudder to think if Hillary had won, but I am beginning to see the swamped will never be drained. Go ahead and slam me as a troll or whatever, but if he doesn’t drain the swamp then he lied.

But it is unlikely that Kennedy will remain on the court for the full four years of the Trump presidency. While he long ago hired his law clerks for the coming term, he has not done so for the following term (beginning Oct. 2018), and has let applicants for those positions know he is considering retirement.

Kennedy’s position on the court is more than consequential. In the most hotly contested and closely divided cases, his vote often decides the outcome. With every passing day, it has become more clear that President Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, is probably even more conservative than the justice he replaced, Antonin Scalia.

One of the final 3 candidates to replace Justice Scalia was Thomas Hardiman.

Pryor is perhaps the most polarizing figure of the potential nominees, with some groups thinking he leans too far right.

When President George W. Bush nominated him to his current post in 2003, Senate Democrats refused to allow Pryor’s confirmation, calling him an “extremist,” citing his position on both Roe v. Wade and Lawrence v. Texas as examples.

I tend to agree with Lindsey Graham ‘s tweet below. Crazy Bernie and Pocahontas are rolling out their Medicaid For All Bill on Tuesday. These two are such Morons because five Democrat Senators voted against a similar bill when it was introduced during the Repeal and Replace push that failed in late July. Those same five Democrats will be mortified that their Party is going to run nationally on this topic in 2018.

Sweet justice would be Heidi Heitkamp or Joe Donnelly or Joe Manchin saying the hell with my Party, I am voting YES on the Graham/Cassidy/Heller Bill. Their states would financially benefit and they absolutely know it!

The effort to repeal and replace Obamacare isn’t quite dead. It will officially expire on September 30 without any further congressional intervention.

States could subsidize the purchase of health insurance just as current law does (though some states would have to kick in more money than they do now). Blue states could use the money to test single-payer plans if they wanted. Red states could spend it entirely on high-risk pools, subsidizing the sickest patients enough to effectively remove them from the individual market and bring down costs for everyone. “You’ve got to cover people who’ve been sick,” Graham tells us, “but there will be 50 different ways to do it.”

There are a few reasons to think that this last-ditch bill might pass. The biggest sign of hope came on September 6 when Arizona senator John McCain, who cast the deciding vote against the “skinny repeal” bill at the end of July, signaled his support for the Graham-Cassidy plan so long as there was enough time for a hearing, debate, and votes on amendments from both parties. Three weeks is not much time, but it is enough to debate a bill whose basic framework has been public for most of the year and which leaves the key decisions up to the states.

Conservatives will argue that the bill does not provide enough relief from Obamacare’s burdensome requirements to cover people with preexisting conditions, and they have been right to identify those provisions as the main cause of Obamacare’s high costs. Graham and Cassidy argue that states’ ability to use the money on high-risk pools and other health care initiatives can effectively address that problem and that waivers from the secretary of Health and Human Services will help states create functional insurance markets with affordable plans that aren’t subject to many of Obamacare’s regulations.

Graham-Cassidy defunds Planned Parenthood and redirects the money to community health centers. If the senators’ 2015 words meant anything, they will push for a vote on the bill before the end of September.

The Graham-Cassidy plan just so happens to funnel the block grants through an existing health-care law to which the Hyde amendment—a measure banning federal funding of elective abortions—is permanently attached.

“Senator McConnell has said get him 50 votes, and he’ll bring it to the floor,” reports Cassidy. “We feel good,” he says. “Never felt better about it,” concurs Graham.

With all the legal minds ablaze over Lerner not being prosecuted, I’d like to hear the list of crimes that they would prosecute her for.

The issue with government officials is that when they are doing governmental actions that seem clearly illegal to us, they have cover. Government has enormous leeway and unless the official is patently corrupt or criminally deviant, it is very hard to stick them for their tyrannical or oppressive or abusive acts. Look for some cases of abuse of power in our history. Very hard to find.

The IRS especially has a long history of abuse of power. Any convictions that stand out in your memory.

Early on we would have settled for all the people who were involved to be fired. To lose their pensions and benefits. That would have been justice, right?

Now it’s Session’s fault.

What are the statutes that Lerner violated upon which you can go to the Grand Jury and get some indictments?

Hell, Trump has not fired anyone over there yet, has he?

Same people in place at the top?

We not have have a swamp, we have a Tyranny in DC.

That’s the reality.

Forty-fifty years of insulation from accountability.

Americans woke up in 2016. This crap has metastasized long ago.

Benghazi, they walked.
IRS, they walked.
CIA is walking.
DOD is walking.
State, they are walking.
NSA, they are walking.

It’s a Deep State Tyranny and they squeezing the life out of MAGA.

Turning on Jeff Sessions is not a correct analysis.

Government officials are very, very hard to bring to justice.

Trump should have fired 4000. He’s replaced about 130 or so. Certainly under 200, the last time I saw a number.
People say where would he find replacements?
The government has some good people easily checked for competence and loyalty.
The states have good people.
And there are 95 million people who are looking for good work opportunities.

He has done very little to drain the swamp.
He says he didn’t want to restaff all the jobs.
He has, actually, by continuing the employment of the Lerners, an army of enemies of MAGA.

Choose, if you like to demonize Sessions.
But make a legal case for your convictions that she was prosecutable.
If she was, she would be.
What are the statute of limitations on her “offenses”?

She should have been fired. Obama protected her.
The system rewarded her.
That’s what tyranny is.
I know of no cases where Tyranny was sued or tried and convicted. Anywhere. Ever.

Well Bull then the bottom line is that NOTHING WILL CHANGE and DRAIN THE SWAMP IS BS!!! Americans deserve better and there is NO EXCUSE for criminality of any kind otherwise what have we become??? Utterly sickening!

“Thanks bull. The man made famous by the line “you’re fired”, lost his tongue.”
>>>>>>>>>

Would you please LOOK AT REALITY!!!

Trump is NOT in charge of a right to work corporation where he can fire at will (I really wish he was.)

YOU CAN NOT FIRE FEDERAL UNION EMPLOYEES this fast! It takes a YEAR and that is IF you have clear cut evidence.

[…]”A minimum of 170 days is required to fire a federal employee for poor performance, if a government agency properly follows the required dismissal process.

The government firing process is so lengthy that departments often keep bad employees to avoid it, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).[…]”

AND THAT IS JUST THE FIRST STAGE. THEN COMES APPEALS!

“[…]Federal agencies have two procedural options when faced with firing a poor worker: chapters 43 and 75 of title 5 of the United States Code, and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) implementing regulations.

Chapter 43 takes between 170 to 370 days to complete, and includes “counseling sessions” for the worker. The employee also gets a chance to improve their performance, which can last up to 110 days.

Throughout the process the government agency must consult with the Human Resources department and their General Counsel before the worker is informed of their dismissal and their “grievance rights.”

This is exactly the problem and why the government was set up that way to protect those who do nothing but “take.” Looks like those regulations have to be “changed.” Reagan fired all of the air-traffic controllers and they didn’t get their jobs back.

Yes. Exactly Bull. One thing I’ve learned after being red pilled is that nothing is as it seems. Lerner is small fish. Jeff Sessions isn’t stupid. He knows how this looks, but, he said he had no evidence. Hmm. I believe him. The FBI ” Deep State ” controlled all that. Lerner says she getting death threats, and her testifying ( She said she would) would ensure violence and threats and wanted her deposition sealed because of it. Sounds sketchy as he’ll to me. Sounds like Session going to use her to catch bigger fish. Just my 2 cents.

Right Bull. I wanted too see if someone else would come to that conclusion. The only way we’re going to get our rights back is if they’re taken back because the Trump Administration is obviously not up to the job.

I would really hate to think that PTrump feels that if he gets taxes down, healthcare, and immigration that Americans will “forget” about the corruption! There is NO WAY that will sit well with the American electorate…we are a tinder box now and we just need a light!
The corruption will just continue and the Dems/Progressives/Globalists will rear their ugly heads and their agenda once again.

Bull Durham, I just addressed this on the last page.
Essentially unless you have HARD EVIDENCE that the supervisor was involved. ie written evidence or multiple eye witnesseses the supervisor skates. All you can do is fire them.
>>>>>>>>>

I tried to find a law that could be used to prosecute and this is all that I found:

SUBJECT: Individual Accountability for Corporate Wrongdoing

“[…]There are, however, many substantial challenges unique to pursuing individuals for corporate misdeeds. In large corporations, where responsibility can be diffuse and decisions are made at various levels, it can be difficult to determine if someone possessed the knowledge and criminal intent necessary to establish their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. This is particularly true when determining the culpability of high-level executives, who may be insulated from the day-to-day activity in which the misconduct occurs. As a result, investigators often must reconstruct what happened based on a painstaking review of corporate documents, which can number in the millions, and which may be difficult to collect due to legal restrictions.[…]”https://www.justice.gov/archives/dag/file/769036/download

Mandy Smithberger, of the privately funded Project on Government Oversight [POGP], testified at the same hearing [on Edward Snowden] about a survey showing that 45 percent of Office of the Inspector General employees “disagreed that their senior leadership maintains high standards of honesty and integrity—nearly twice the rate reported by [other] employees at the Department of Defense,” she said.[…]” link

“The Office of Special Investigations (OSI) is a specialized unit within GAO created to meet the Congress’ need for quick, focused responses to questions and issues of criminal activity, fraud, and abuse. Staffed with senior criminal investigators, its primary mission is to identify and investigate potential fraud, criminal misconduct, and serious wrongdoing involving federal funds, programs, and activities.[…]”

Nice to know the watch dogs are more corrupt than those they are supposed to be watching!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

On top of that Lerner’s laptop was ‘destroyed’The Curious Case of Lois Lerner’s Physically Damaged Hard Drive
(wwwDOT)atr.org/curious-case-lois-lerners-physically-damaged-hard-drive

“[…]The Oversight Committee report states:

“Using the CI unit’s digital forensic facilities, Minsek opened the hard drive and conducted additional tests. Once he opened the hard drive, Minsek noticed “well-defined scoring creating a concentric circle in the proximity of the center of the disk.”

According to TIGTA testimony submitted to the Oversight Committee on June 25, 2014, Lerner’s laptop stopped communicating with the IRS server on Saturday June 11, 2011, between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
According to the same testimony,the laptop was likely physically located in Lerner’s office the moment it stopped communicating with the server:

“Based on consistent network reporting for more than a week, the laptop computer was likely located in Ms. Lerner’s office.”
the testimony states, TIGTA was unable to determine whether anyone had entered Lois Lerner’s office during the date in question because entry logs had been destroyed after a year in keeping with the vendor’s operating procedures:

“Attempts were made to determine if anyone entered Ms. Lerner’s office prior to the hard drive crash on June 11, 2011; however, the entry logs that would have recorded any entry into the building were destroyed by the building security vendor after one year of retention, or sometime in 2012. The destruction of the logs after one year falls within the vendor’s standard operating procedures.”

In August and September, the Oversight Committee is expected to release more information from the millions of reviewed documents and 50 transcribed interviews. All Americans expecting honest government hope more light will be shed on how Lerner’s hard drive mysteriously received “scoring.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

FOX’s Brett Baier is having a special series started today about “What Happened To The IRS Scandal” which just broke today…his series was going to air at a later date but due to the DOJ’s announcement they moved it up. In short he gave a quick list of Lois Lerner’s activities. His panel said that more than likely some lower level agents said there wasn’t enough evidence to try her…probably Obama’s boys! This is totally disgraceful and will not sit well with Americans!!!
DRAIN THE FRIGGIN’ SWAMP ALREADY!!!

Sessions needs a chat or else fully explain to the innocent victims of this woman who freely operated under obama authority and agenda why he is not going to reopen cases that harassed them soley for having conservative views. 😡

This seems to be the scandal that keeps on giving. As awful as the IRS scandal was, they colluded with the FBI or the FBI assisted–however you want to look at that. So how does the DOJ investigate itself? I guess it doesn’t.

Seems to me this would be a PERFECT opportunity for a Special Counsel. And don’t tell me there’s “no evidence.” How much evidence was there that required a Special Counsel to go after PDJT?

This needs full sunlight. This is wrong. I’m sorry Jeff Sessions, but this is wrong. And this isn’t an area where he has recused himself. He could appoint a Special Counsel today.

psadie, that is a sad and horrible statement…an opinion based solely upon your human perspective. Do you think God is sending all these disasters to punish sinners? What is the guiding and principled Scripture to back up your statement?

If you think that the IRS is a problem and Lois Lerner is getting off “scot free” then you will LOVE that George Soros is BUSY putting in place State Attorney Generals and State Judges for his own use of taking our country down. Hell, Soros should be listed as a TERRORIST for all the subversive things he has done to this country via AntiFa/BLM/OWS and others like the unions SEIU etc. There is MULTIPLE EVIDENCE against him but NOTHING IS DONE…very disappointing!

Agree, but is it the sort of evidence to put before a judge. It is not a crime to be politically active, to try to get your candidate for AG in. Soros is not dumb, he funnels money through legitimate NGO type organizations. It is all legal. Would you like to be a prosecutor on a salary going after one of the richest men in the world? (25 billion). Heck, Donald Trump at about 3 billion is a poor man compared to Soros.
America is run by the rich communists. Calling them socialists is pc talk. It is ugly what the US has become over the past 40 years.

This isn’t what I call “politically active” for it is really SEDITION and TREASON against the safety and security of our Nation. These groups are REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNISTS. His organizations are being investigated by EU countries…they know what he has been doing and he is using American taxpayer money via the Democrats to promote anarchy and violence! The judges who stopped Trump’s Immigration Ban were supported by Soros!!!

They have earthquakes all the time. For some strange reason, I monitor earthquakes around the world almost daily… and they are regulars on the map. Also today, earthquakes in Oman and Iran – also normal for the area.

Yes. Exactly Bull. One thing I’ve learned after being red pilled is that nothing is as it seems. Lerner is small fish. Jeff Sessions isn’t stupid. He knows how this looks, but, he said he had no evidence. Hmm. I believe him. The FBI ” Deep State ” controlled all that. Lerner says she getting death threats, and her testifying ( She said she would) would ensure violence and threats and wanted her deposition sealed because of it. Sounds sketchy as he’ll to me. Sounds like Session going to use her to catch bigger fish. Just my 2 cents.

Exactly paul. After 8 months on the job, this is it. I patiently indulged the opinions of most here that there was some master chess game going on in the dark recesses of the halls of justice, but even those sessions’ advocates have become silent. Howie had this one from the jump. It is what it is.

The thing is, there was no evidence and the DOJ appointed a Special Counsel to look into PDJT. No evidence regarding Lois Lerner? Appoint a Special Counsel to investigate IRS weaponization towards conservatives. Let them see if they can find any evidence.

Sylvia this reminds me of the “evidence” against the Clintons and yet HRC sits pretty drinking Chardonnay without a worry. Steve Bannon and his crew “researched, referenced, and cited everything for their book “Clinton Cash.” All they need do is read the book and look at the reference pages for it is all their with no effort!!! All the work is done for the DOJ…same thing with Dinesh D’Souza’s book referenced and all!

Sylvia, I understood your point perfectly, I was just piling on agreeing with you!

And yes, I would be proud for you to use my words in a post to PDJT. The reason I post so much is to give feedback, as I know his people (as well as Lou Dobson, I’ll sheepishly admit), read this blog, and I think it is important that we give them our honest feedback rather than blind support,
Mike

Pres Trump has so much serious stuff on his plate, NK, ISIS, hostile states, and so on. Do all those people (like Ann Coulter) who scream out when he doesn’t “do something right” ever think that perhaps the man is only one man with the same number of hours in a day as we all have? Perhaps he gets plain dog tired sometimes, and things get past him. The latest is somebody demanding that he personally intervene and help some pastor who is missing in Africa. He has not had one day of his presidency when there has not been a full on attack or an underhand attack from the media, his own party, etc. Not one.

True analysis. He is one man being torn in 10 different directions. The saddest part is that he gets very little support from his own Party. It is the Trump voters/supporters that have his back. People want what they want and they want it now. Trump is a doer, and it is obvious that he is so frustrated with the GOP Leadership in not getting his Agenda done. The media does not give him a break – 24/7 of constant negative coverage. Trump needs our support and our prayers, more than ever.

i agree. I am so disheartened by the trashtalking today about President Trump. No one else could have withstood what he has and gotten anything done. Unrealistic expectations, where there should be support and gratitude.

Oh good grief people
If you want to clean out the swamp (bureaucracy) THEN you have to get the laws changed that PROTECT FEDERAL EMPLOYEES from firing!

To do that you have to VOTE IN GOOD Congress critters.

So quit whining and start working on getting those patriots elected.

At least now we have a real CHANCE.
Don’t blow it by imitating the frecking Snowflakes.

Go to this link and get involved: http://citizensfortrump.com/get-involved/
Please go to the link and complete the form to be volunteers.
Go to beapc.com. The website gives links and is a good resource that people can use to get involved at the local level.

Here’s a new website that might help with that “education”: http://www.votemaga.com is being built by T_D Reddit kids to share info about candidates running in 2017 and 2018 primaries.

A non sequitur. Lerner should have been prosecuted. Someone commented at AceofSpades that because she was charged with criminal contempt by Congress, Sessions was required by law to convene a grand jury. I don’t know if that’s true, but this decision is going to leave a mark. It looks like Sessions is part of the deep state protection racket.

Sessions is becoming a liability again. He’s fighting Trump on legalizing medical marijuana for intractable pain control and yet doesn’t have the gumption to even restart the Lerner investigation from 2015 when Obama lackeys were in control. Basically, he says he reread the defence and is going with it. Republicans are not happy.

Get rid of him. I know it’s next to impossible at this point, but that’s what needs to be done. What a strange turn of events this is — Sessions as Trump’s worst enemy. Another irony of history I suppose.

Medical marijuana is a natural product which competes with expensive and big multi-national pharma drugs.

Freeing Lois Lerner buys him more big friends, namely, he secures his job as AG with Democrats when he goes against Trump. He is holding Mueller’s investigation on Trump as his card. He hasn’t gone off the deep end. This is him.

Nothing confusing here. Sessions is a seasoned and professional Deep State operative.

For those of you that are upset by Lois Lerner’s actions, you might consider eliminating the perk that lets the IRS into the Tea Party drawers – the stupid tax exemptions themselves. Why should these orgs not have to pay the same kinds of taxes that every other business pays? By allowing them to claim that they should be exempt, you are INVITING THE IRS TO INVESTIGATE THEM. Drop the perk, and all will be well. MAGA on!